Logging engine



E. D. ROBERTS LOGGING ENGINE 'Aa Q 4. 1925.

Filed March 22, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 E. D. ROBERTS LOGGING ENGINE 4Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 22, 1921 (lttomaq WWW Aug. 4. 1925. G1,548,749

E. D. ROBERTS LOGGING ENGINE Filed March 22, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 gs QQ I E f u mmmlllll (Q V K31 Q 1 1\ A g Q I g 9% Q 3% K v m 1 Aug. 4.1925.

E. D. ROBERTS LOGGING ENGINE Filed March 22, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 4Patented Aug. 4, 1925.

UNITED STATES EUGENE D. ROBERTS, OF TACOMA, WASHINGTON.

LOGGING ENGINE.

Application filed March 22, 1921., Serial No. 454,561.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EUGENE D. Ronnirrs, a citizen of the United States,residing at Tacoma, in the county of Pierce and State of Washington,have invented a new and useful Logging Engine, of which the following isa specification.

This invention is a new and useful mechanism for controlling therotation of the various drums of a logging engine or the like, and foralso controlling the speeds at which said drums may berevolved.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a system of gearing,by means of which a compound gear-driven lower drum shaft is provided,and by means of which the rotation of the upper drum is controlled insuch manner as to permit the cable to be wound over the top of the upperdrum,

in a manner which will not interfere with the operation of a drum on thelower drum shaft, directly in front of said upper drum. A further objectis to provide adjustable bearings for the lower drum shaft, whereby'thesame may be variably positioned to accommodate drive gears of differentsizes, substituted one for the other, thereby providing means by whichthe parts may be altered from aihigh speed to a lower speed, or viceversa, with a wide range of speed variations. A further ob ject is-toprovide an intermediate shaft, and a quick speed change mechanismn1ounted thercon,with control means so designed that'it will beimpossible to engage one speed without disengaging the other. A

further object to provide'ai'ixed fric-j tion spider ontheintermediateshaft, and shiftable clutch members loosely'mountcd onsaid shaft, and positioned to engage the same, simple and efficientmeans being pro vided whereby the clutch members may be actuated by theabove mentioned control means. I p

The invention will be hereinafter fully set forth and particularlypointed out in the claims. 7

In the accompanying drawings v Figure 1 is a side elevation illustratinga logging engine constructed in accordance with the invention. Figure 2is a top plan view thereof partly in section. Figure is a diagrammaticalsectional view illustrating the clutch mechanism on the intermediateshaft. Figure 4 is a similar View illustrating a modified form ofcontrol mechanism. Figure 5 is a detail end view of Figure 4:. Figure 6is a detail cross sectional view illustrating the clutch spider. Figure7 is a detail cross sectional view illustrating the arrangement of thewing sleeves. Figure 8 is a detail longitudinal sectional view of thesleeve pinion.

Referring to the drawings, 10 designates a frame or base of anypreferred construction, upon which is mounted the boiler 11, whichsupplies steamto reciprocating engines 12, one on each side of theboiler. The drive rods 13 of the engine, are connected to cranks 14, onthe ends of a crankshaft 15, which is provided with drive gears 16 and16 of different diameters.

Mounted in suitable bearings, carried by the frame, is an upper drumshaft 17 located above and parallel with the crankshaft 15. The lowerdrum shaft 18 is mounted in bearings 19 secured to the frame 10 by meansofbolts 20, which are passed through suitable openings in flanges formedon said frame 10. A series of 'said openings are provided and said boltsare removable to permit of adjustment of the bearings along the framefor a purpose to be later described. The intermediate shaft 21 ismounted in bearings 21, secured to the frame in a plane between thebearings for the crankshaft and those for the lower drum shaft. Looselymounted on said intermediate shaft is a gear 22, which is in mesh withthe drive gear 16 of the crankshaft. The gear 22 normally runs idle onthe intermediate shaft 21, and meshes with a pinion 28 on the upper drumshaft. By means of this arrangement the upper drum shaft is driven at aconstant speed by the crank shaft 15 through said gear 22.

- The lower drum shaft is driven by means of a gear 24, keyed to theintermediate shaft, and meshing with a gear 2 1 on the said drum shaft.The bearings 19 are made adjustable upon the frame 10, to permit ofgears 24 of different sizes being substituted one for the other, itbeing necessary to adjust the lower drum shaft along the frame toaccommodate the particular size of drive gear which may be selected, thesize of gear 24 remaining unchanged.

As illustrated in the drawing, the lower drum shaft is provided with twodrums 25 and 26, the drum 25 being provided with a clutch 27, controlledby the friction screw 28, whereby it may be coupled up with the gear 24.In a similar manner a clutch 29 controlled by the friction screw 30,serves to connect and disconnect the drum 26 with the lower drum shaft.The friction screws 28 and 30 are controlled by suitable handles 31 in awell-known manner. Two drums are shown for purposes of illustration, itbeing understood that any desired number of drums may be employed.

Loosely mounted on the intermediate shaft 21 is a second drive gear 32,meshing with the gear 16'on the drive shaft. The gears 22 and 32 areslidably mounted upon said intermediate shaft. Keyed to the shaft 21,between the gears 2.2 and 32, a clutch spider 35, the side faces ofwhich are pro vided with clutch grooves 36 and 37 respectively, shapedto receive clutch blocks 38 secured to the contiguous faces of the saidgears 22 and 32. The gears 22 and 32 are normally pressed away from thespider 35, to unclutched position, by means of springs carried by bolts39 clearly illustrated in Figure 3, but are never disengaged from theirrespective drivegears 16 and 16 Abutting against the outer face of thegear 22 is a thrust collar 40, encircling the intermediate shaft 21, andbearing against said thrust collar are wing sleeves 41, which are passedthrough suitable openings formed in the gear 24, in a manner LO permitlongitudinal movement of said win sleeves along the shaft 21. Abuttingagainst the outer end of the wingsleeves 41, is a thrust sleeve 42,which is actuated by means of a pin 43, reciprocably mounted in alongitudinal bore formed in the end of a shaft 21, said pin beingprovided with a gib key 44, bearing against the outer end of the sleeve42. Bea-ring against the outer end of the hub of the gear 32 is a thrustcollar 45, which is engaged by agib key 46, formedon' a pin 47, mountedin a manner similar to the Bcciprocation is imparted to the pins 43 and47 in any suitable manner. It is desirable, however, to so arrange them,that as I one is moved inwardly the other will move outwardly. Thepreferred form is that illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, in which the pins43 and 47 project into pressure chain: bers 48, provided with pistons49, which are secured to said pins. Fluid pressure, preferably steam, isintroduced into the chamhers-48 from any suitable source, by means ofpipes 50'and 51 respectively, controlled by a four-way valve 52. By thisarrangement, when pressure is admitted into the right hand chamber 48,it. is simultaneously exhausted from the left hand chamber, and viceversa. When pressure is introduced into the right hand chamber 48, forinstance, the pin 43 is forced inwardly, imparting correspondinglongitudinal moi ement' to thrust sleeve 42, and the wing sleeve 41, andthe pressure of the latter against the collar 40, will force the gear 22into clutching engagement with the spider 35. By this means the lowerdrum shaft is rotated through the medium of the gear 16, the upper drumshaft being driven by reason of the engagement of the gears 22 and 23.If it is desired to rotate the lower drum shaft at a faster speed,pressure is introduced from the right hand chamber. Thereupon thesprings 39 will force the pinion 22 to unclutched position, and the pin47 will force the gear 32 into clutched position, so as to drive theintermediate shaft through the mediu'mof the goal- 16. In this manner,the speed at which the said lower drum shaft isdriven is selectivelycontrolled, and it is impossible to throw either gear 22 or 32 intoclutching position, wit-hout simultaneously throwing the other intounclutched position. It will be noted in this connection that the gear22 is always 111 mesh with the gear 23, whether th s former is clutchedto thespider 35 or not. In other words, the only efi'ect of clutchingthe gear 22 with the spider 35 is to place the intermediate shaft 21into operation at the speed fixed by the ratio of the pinion 16 withrespect to the gear 22, without in any manner affecting the speed ofdrive of the upper drumv shaft.

In Figure 4 is illustrated a modified construction, by means of whichthe clutching and unclutching of the gears 22'and 32 is controlled. Inthis form, the wing sleeves 41, thrust sleeve 42 and thrust pins 43,andgib key 44, are employed as in the form already described. In lieu ofthe pressure chambers and pistons, the pins 43 and 'b key 44 arereciprocated by means of sproc et thrust screws 53, which are providedwith actuating sprocket wheels 54, driven by chains 55 which areactuated by sprocket gears 56, on an operating shaft 57, which may berotated in any suitable manner. As shown in the drawing a crank lever 58is employed the same being secured to the shaft 57, a suitable quadrant59 and latch 59? being employed to retain. said lever in any adjustedposit-ion. .It is obvious from the drawing, that when the shaft 57 isrotated in onedirection, one of the sprocket thrust screws 53 will moveoutwardly and the other one will move inwardly, and vice versa, uponreversing the rotation of the operating shaft. In this manner one drivegear becomes unclutched before the other one reaches the clutchedposition.

The upper drum shaft may be provided with any number ofdrums, two suchdrums 60 and 61 being illustrated in the drawing,

said drums being provided with clutches 62 and 63 respectively, by meansof which they may be connected with or disconnected from the driveshaft. These clutches are controlled by threaded thrust screws 64, in awell-known manner.

For convenience in placing the spider 35 in position, and removing itfrom the shaft for the purposes of making repairs, it is preferred toconstruct the same of a plurality of sections, as illustrated in Figure6. In said figure the spider is shown as formed of two sections A and B,united by bolts 65.

From the foregoing it will be readily seen that the invention provides asimple system of gearing, by means of which the upper drum shaft may berotated in a direction to avoid interference with the operation of adrum on the lower drum shaft, directly in front of the upper drum, andat the same time means are provided whereby the lower drum shaft may bedriven at different speeds. By means of the adjustable bearings for thelower drum shaft, the latter may be variably positioned to accommodatedriving gears of different sizes, substituted one for the other, therebyproviding means for further varying the speed of said shaft. Aparticular advantage of the construction illustrated, is that a fixedfriction spider on the intermediate shaft is provided, th sameco-operating with shiftable gears, loosely mounted on the shaft andhaving means to engage the spider, and simple control means so designedthat it will be impossible to engage one gear with the spider, withoutdisengaging the other. Thus it will be observed that an exceedinglysimple and strong mechanism is provided, which will not readily get outof order, and which will possess a maximum of efficiency. A furtheradvantage is that by mounting the upper drum shaft over the drive shaftand maintaining the gear 22 in mesh with the gear 23, a very compactmechanism is produced having provision whereby a number of drums may beconveniently placed on the lower drum shaft, without requiring anylonger base than has heretofore been required for a single drum underexisting practice.

Having thus explained the nature of the invention and described anoperative manner of constructing and using the same, a though withoutattempting to set forth all by said intermediate shaft, selective drivegears loosely mounted on the intermediate shaft and meshing with therespective gears on the drive shaft, means by which either selectivedrive gear may be caused to rotate with the intermediate shaft, wherebythe lower drum shaft may be driven at different speeds, and meanswhereby the upper drum shaft is driven by one of the selective drivegears of the intermediate shaft.

2. A logging engine comprising a main drive shaft, an intermediateshaft, means by which the intermediate shaft may be selectively drivenat different speeds by said drive shaft, a lower drum shaft driven bysaid intermediate shaft, and an upper drum shaft located over the maindrive shaft and also driven through the medium of said intermediateshaft.

8. A logging engine comprising a main drive shaft, an intermediateshaft, a lower drum shaft, gears of different diameters loosely mountedon the intermediate shaft and constantly driven by the main shaft, meanswhereby the lower drum shaft may be driven through the medium of eitherof said gears, and an upper drum shaft located over the main drive shaftand actuated by one of said loosely mounted gears.

at. A logging engine comprising a main drive shaft, an intermediateshaft, a lower drum shaft, gear wheels of different diameters secured tothe main drive shaft, loosely mounted gears on the intermediate shaft, aclutch member secured to the intermediate shaft between the looselymounted gears, means for simultaneously moving both of said looselymounted gears to connect either with the clutch member and to disconnectthe other from said clutch member, means whereby the lower drum shaft isdriven by said intermediate shaft, and an upper drum shaft located overthe main drive shaft and driven by one of said loosely mounted gears.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

EUGENE D. ROBERTS.

